Does Anybody Feel Sorry For The F.A.I?

L

Lex Foutish

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John Delaney was on The Last Word this evening and it was quite apparent that the sale of their ten year tickets isn't going well, despite the spin that he was putting on the situation. They're so desperate now that they're willing to do a deal with "The Football Family" with a ten year, twelve month standing order of €100 with no down payment.

Rewind to post Euro '88. The eejits who were, for years, running clubs, lining pitches, washing jerseys, training teams and so on (and I was that soldier), and who travelled to International matches in Dublin, suddenly found that ticket prices for Ireland games increased and club allocations were slashed to cater for the Johnny Come Lately Corporate Supporter Guy who suddenly realised that this was the coolest gig in town.

Twenty one years later, the ever turning wheel has come full circle. Come back Pitch-lining, Jersey-washing, Club lotto-selling Langer, we have tickets for you again!

I don't think so, lads!
 
I don't understand how he could claim that €1200 per annum was good value for around 8 games per year. When I lived in Dublin between 2003-2005, I went to most home internationals and paid €25 per ticket for a seat behind the goals. God only knows what they will change for the tickets on general sale!!!
 
I wonder how this will effect the tickets being issued a the moment to people, like me, on the ticket list. I get 4 for every game at the minute and i hope to be on the list for the new stadium when it opens, but if they are pushing for 6-8K tickets to be block booked over a 10 year period, and then corporate boxes being taken into account it could mean that people who are on the current ticket list will be shafted when the new stadium opens due to reduced capacity. I heard John on the last word and thought that he and ISG were grasping at straws to sell the remaining tickets. i applied for the vantage tickets but when i was told that i would have to stump up 7K before any tickets are issued, i dont think so, that was for seats behind the goals.

You would have thought that the FAI would have targeted the clubs first inconjuntion with selling them to the corporate world to show some appreciation for the people who run/set-up/organise the game at a grass roots level rather than doing it now. I think that the ordinary fan could get shafted on this.
 
As a block ticket holder for a few years and a supporter for many more, the FAI sent me out a lovely fancy booklet on the Vantage club and it appeared that they were targeting the real fans, until they launched the website and put up the price list... A ticket that had cost €50 would now cost €500 !!!

This latest ticket sale drive is even better.. Pay between €100 and €266 per month for something that you can really use about half a dozen times per year. Eh I dont think so!!!

2009 - 1 Game
2008 - 4 Games ( 2 were Friendly matches)
2007 - 4 Games ( 2 were Friendly matches)
2006 - 5 Games ( 3 were Friendly matches)

A real fan went to all of the home games last year and the year before and they cost him or her roughly €200 in total.. Now the FAI want €1200 and €3192 for the same experience?? Crazy
 
I feel sorry for us as a Nation having them run such a great sport in our name or even the makey up 'Republic of Ireland' name they allow our National football team to be called.
 
gillarosa said:
I feel sorry for us as a Nation having them run such a great sport in our name or even the makey up 'Republic of Ireland' name they allow our National football team to be called.
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Agree with this. They are showing total disrespect for the country by not using its proper name i.e. "Ireland".
 
The cost of international tickets in general is a disgrace never mind this new ticket they are promoting for the new stadium.

I have been going to games now since 96 - only missed about 3 home games in that period. Went on schoolboy tickets from the late 80s to early 90s. Then stopped until I had the cash to start going on full price tickets

The tickets for saturdays game which I get through a club are €70 - depsite some tough periods on the pitch I have also kept going but now I feel like giving up and not going any more - and its not the recession talking its just 70 for one match is far too much.

I've brought my son to the last few games but just won't do it any more as it'll be 140 for the day for the 2 of us before any extras.

Not a great comparisson but we can both go to a GAA game in the summer for 30-40 euro and see a much more exciting game.

Just to put it in perspective the tickets for the away game in Italy next wednesday are €10.
 
The OP hit the nail on the head imho.

I used to go to games way back, but found it harder to get them when the good times were here. As usual with football (and this happens in every country) the tickets started to go to the people with money and the sponsors in greater numbers. People like me found it near impossible to get tickets for matches. I continued to follow the League of Ireland in these years and am still a season ticket holder at my local club.

Now it appears they are looking for the 'real' football fans to come back again, and we are being greeted with open arms - well as long as you have €12k to spend. This figure is sheer madness, and I am sorry I missed him on the Last Word.

Football in this country is so badly run its funny. I think that the clubs in the League of IReland should be the 1st to be offered tickets for every game. Afaik, only about 25,000 people attend LoI games weekly. These people should have 1st shout on tickets as they are the ones keeping football alive in this country, unlike the Man Utd/Liverpool/Celtic/Sunderland fans who plough their money into foreign football. Even if every single person was to take up their ticket (very very unlikely) then the stadium would only be half-full. Then the tickets could be sold on to the Johnny Come Latelys.

To conclude, I do not feel sorry for the FAI. This mess was their own doing and they had the chance to do things properly a long time ago. Now they are trying to flog a very average product at top dollar prices for 10 years, when there is no guarantee what the product will be like in years to come.

This will of course happen the world over in football. The richest league in the world, the EPL, who tried their best to exclude the real fans and bring in 'the suits' will very soon be asking the real fans to come back and help them out. Mark my words, it is going to happen in the next few years.
 

+1. whilst i dont have a son, i get 4 tickets at 50 each for the games and most of the time i get people for them, but other times such as firendlies then i cannot get rid of them for love nor money (i always go with my dad so 2 are left). its getting very expensive alright in these recessionary times to justify spending that amount of money in a year, the cost of being a fan is not cheap, emotionally and financially. i would echo the comments about the GAA matches. i could pay 40 euro for a ticket and get 2 games if there is a double header in croker on the day in the championship. i dont like the ticket prices that they have for people on the ticket list, the cheapest is 50 and i think the most expensive is 80 or something like that, and i think that these prices will have to change for the smaller profile games to attract people to the games.
 
I used to go to Internationals both home and away but have not and will not support the FAI anymore since the disgraceful 'Tallaght/Shamrock Rovers Stadium' debacle... Now it's GAA and the DUBS all the way for me and my 2 boys, plus the odd trip to Old Trafford and Celtic Park for which I make no apologies about!
 

Wasnt the Tallaght delay due to GAA objections?
 
Yes the Tallaght delay was due to a court case taken by Thomas Davis GAA club with support offered from "Headquarters". (I acknowldge the original delay in completing the stadium once it was commenced in 2000 was down to a previous board of SRFC, who have since been removed and replaced by a members run club with extensive community programmes)

The fact remains that Tallaght stadium is a municipal venue open to all sports with SRFC as anchor tenants. Due to the dimensions of the pitch, adult GAA matches can't be played but juvenile GAA matches are able to be played on the pitch.

If the pitch had been adjusted to take into account a full size adult GAA pitch it would have meant a reduced capacity stadium ill-suited to either SRFC's needs, the GAA's needs (one of their spokesman was on RTE a few years ago saying they envisaged Tallaght to be a Southside Parnell Park), or indeed the taxpayer's investment (along with the money already invested by SRFC prior to the council reassuming control of the site and development.)

I have gone the opposite direction of the other poster. I was a Dubs fan but have not gone to a Dublin game since the court case was taken nor will I ever again.
 
gillarosa said:
...or even the makey up 'Republic of Ireland' name they allow our National football team to be called.
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You need to talk to FIFA so, it was they who decided neither FAI or IFA could use the name 'Ireland'.
Leo
 
Ron Burgundy said:
Thats amazing, i just looked at my passport and it says.....wait for it......IRELAND. No republic mentioned anywhere.
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Ireland (Eire) is the official name. Republic Of Ireland is the official description. Good luck trying to figure out the difference! Also under English law, they are allowed to call us Republic Of Ireland but I think there was a case before of a failed extradition because they didn't call us Ireland on the docs!
 
The name of the country is "Ireland" full stop - says so in the Constitution. Nothing else is correct. The name "Ireland" is what we are called in the UN, EU and by any country with diplomatic relations with us and also by the International Olympic Council. Nothing else is legal.

I strongly suspect that FIFA did not instigate the name "Republic of Ireland" - am I correct in saying that when we've played in the World Cup finals the official FIFA graphics at matches says "Ireland"? FIFA, like all international sports organisations, used the official name of the country as recognised by the UN etc.

A description is not the name, as it implies it is a description of how the country is governed. Descriptions are not names and not appropriate for any sports teams. When have you ever heard FIFA using "the Kingdom of Belgium", "the Autocracy of Brunei", "the Despotic Regime of North Korea" etc. etc.
 
TarfHead said:
"makey-up" ?



http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1948/en/act/pub/0022/sec0002.html#zza22y1948s2
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If you re-read you will see that is in regard to the description of this State, not the name which was and remains (in English) as Ireland. It is confusing but maybe because its legalese, as in we are a Republic, therefore described as the Republic of Ireland. It would be similarly incorrect to refer to the English team as 'The Constitutional Monarcy of England' or any variation on that. FIFA would not allow either Northern Ireland nor Ireland use the name Ireland in competition which may or may not have been influenced by the politics of the time, the FAI allows that to stand, in my opinion they are in error in doing so.

In regard to the RofI description from the act in 1948, I think it was Costello who tried to put it into layperson terms with their explanation something along the lines of "I am John Costello, but I am known as Senior Counsel"
 
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